


Jumping Dimensions

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M, written for the Mavin Fic Bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-01 01:52:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1038935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael’s been hearing a strange and slightly annoying voice lately, and even at home in the corner of his eye he sees someone. He later finds out it’s Gavin, who apparently is his coworker and best friend (but Gavin acts weird about the best friend part, Michael isn’t sure why) who can travel through different alternate dimensions using a scythe he has. Apparently he and Michael went around fighting dimensions monsters that eat the dimensional barriers. Michael and Gavin have less than a week to get Gavin out of the in between place he is, find out why he’s been erased from existence and bring him back, and find out which dimension the monsters are coming from and stop them before the dimensional barriers collapse.<br/>… Yeah, it’s gonna be a long week.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Y’know, there were a few times in his life where Michael felt like he was going crazy, but this one takes the cake. I mean, it’s normal sometimes to think you’ve heard something that wasn’t really there, or seen something that isn’t real, but after a few times it makes you feel like you’re completely bonkers

Michael had been hearing voices. Well, not voices, more like one voice that wouldn’t go away. The first time he heard it he thought he was imagining things. The second time he heard it minutes later made him take off his headphones and look around the office, trying to see if someone was hearing it too. When he didn’t see anyone react he shrugged it off as something Ray was watching, with the volume a bit too loud.

The third time he heard it he glanced at Ray’s screen. He wasn’t even watching anything. This was when he thought that maybe something was up.

He realized he hadn’t even being paying attention to what the voice had said, but the next time it spoke he did.

“Seriously? Nothing at all?” it said. Michael wasn’t sure what that even meant. No one else seemed to have heard it, but he wasn’t accepting insanity yet.

He listened for it to speak again, but he heard nothing. After an hour he gave up.

He decided to ask Ray about it later.

“Did you hear any weird... voices at work today?” he asked as they left the office for the night. Ray raised an eyebrow.

“Voices? No... what’ve you been smoking dude?” he joked. Michael laughed.

“Nah, just thought I heard something. Probably imagined it.” he said.

Yep, he was going insane.

Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw someone poke their head out of the front door of the office. He turned to look and saw nothing. He shrugged it off as someone just looking out the door.

In the next few days Michael felt kind of out of it. He’d look at a door and see it open, then the next second it was magically closed, as if it wasn’t open at all.  

A lot of time he swore he saw the chair that was used for the spare desk next to him was still at the desk, but it was actually next to Ray, who had his feet propped up on it.

He shrugged most of this off, but the voice was hard to ignore

The voice sounded strange, like it was real but at the same time.. wasn’t, if that made any sense. It sounded a bit like a male with a british accent.

Eventually the voice had given up trying to get his attention, and would just utter a few jokes or sarcastic comments, even asking a strange question now and then. Most of the time he’d hear the voice start to ask something then stop himself, as if just realizing that no one heard him.

After a while the voice talked even less, only interjecting witty comments from time to time. By now Michael had accepted that he was probably crazy and was hearing voices or something.

Honestly, the dude was pretty funny, and Michael had to resist from laughing or cracking a smile sometimes as to not seem more insane than he already was.

Every once and a while the voice would try to get his attention again, but Michael would never respond. He was never sure why, but something in his gut told him not to.

From the voice’s shouting and pleads for recognition, Michael had learned that the voice’s name was Gavin.

At first it was weird that Gavin knew a lot about Michael’s life, like sometimes he’d reference Red vs Blue or an inside joke in the office, but he realized that if Gavin did come from inside his head then it wasn’t really that strange.

But there were times when Gavin would say something that Michael knew nothing about, like slow motion film or a random fact about science or even things about Minecraft, which wasn’t really Michael’s field of expertise.

It made him less think he was crazy and more that something was going on. But he didn’t react or say anything, as if he was avoiding something. He still couldn’t figure out why.

Gavin’s unawareness of Michael hearing him didn’t last much longer though, a few weeks after Michael started hearing him Gavin found out.

He was just playing games and bumming around at home when it happened. His downtime at home was when he heard Gavin the most, or when his voice seemed the clearest. Sometimes he’d even almost see him, but only very vaguely.

He probably wouldn’t admit it, but even if he was pretty sure Gavin didn’t exist, he enjoyed his company. It was like having a friend there, except the friend was a part of his imagination or something.

One night Gavin cracked a joke, catching Michael off guard. He laughed, and then realized what just happened. He went stiff as the really vague and transparent figure that was sitting next to him turned to face him.

“You can hear me?” he said. Michael swallowed, and slowly nodded his head.

“Well why didn’t you say something?!” Gavin said, frantically standing up in front of Michael. “Can you see me?” he asked. Michael nodded again. Gavin sighed.

“How long have you been hearing and seeing me?”

“Uh, a few weeks or so.” Gavin sat on the coffee table in front of Michael, stretching his legs in front of him.

“Wow, you held out long. Didn’t you get suspicious or anything?” he asked. Michael shrugged.

“I did, but I dunno, I felt like something bad was gonna happen if I said something.” Gavin raised his eyebrow.

“Wait, what made you think that?” Michael shrugged again.

“I dunno, just a weird gut feeling.” Gavin’s face darkened. He stared at the floor, fiddling with his hands.

“Well, you were kind of right. Something bad is going to happen. Well, it’s sort of actually happening.”

“So uh, do you remember who I am at all?” Gavin said, gesturing to himself. Michael shook his head.

“Well, I know you’re that weird voice that talks to me sometimes.” he said. Gavin smiled.

“Well, do you remember anyone with the name Gavin Free?” he asked.

Michael thought for a bit. It sounded oddly familiar, not just the Gavin part but the whole name. But he couldn’t think of anything else related to the name, other than the Gavin sitting in front of him. He shook his head.

“Oh.” Gavin said. He looked a bit disheartened. “Well, you can still hear and see me. That’s something.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. Gavin sighed.

“It’s a long story. But right now I need your help.” Michael raised an eyebrow.

“What do you need?” he asked. He was probably crazy to be so quick to help a dude only he could see and hear, but somehow he felt that he could trust Gavin, and something told him that this was serious. Gavin looked around.

“Hm, follow me.” he said. Gavin stood up and headed for Michael’s desk. Michael hesitated, then followed. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not, but he could see Gavin more clearly now. His light brown hair stood up like he’d been attacked by his hair dryer, making Michael chuckle.

Gavin stopped in front of the desk and closed his eyes.

“Well?” Michael asked. Gavin opened his eyes and looked at him.

“Oh sorry, I’m just trying to remember. Ever since I got stuck here I’ve been having a harder time remembering everything.” Gavin said.

“Remembering everything? What do you mean by everything?” Michael asked.days

“I’ll tell you when I’m finished.”

“Can’t you tell me now?” Gavin sighed.

“You’d probably think I’m crazy though.” Michael rolled his eyes.

“Well, I’m talking to a dude I can only hear and barely fucking see, if anyone was crazy here it’d probably be me.” he said. Gavin laughed. “Alright then.”

“So uh, you know about alternate dimensions and parallel universes and stuff right?” he said, leaning on the desk.

“Well yeah, I mean everyone does.”

“Okay so say there’s someone who can uh, sort of travel between them,” Michael nodded slowly.

“And say there were monsters that went and did bad stuff to the dimensional barriers and it was that person’s job to keep them safe because that person was a constant in a number of dimensions meaning they were all alive and ready to protect and when the same person from another dimension came asking for help they wouldn’t be weirded out.” he stopped to breathe.

“And say the person in one dimension accidentally bollocksed up and ended up erasing himself from his original dimension and leaving his device that he used to travel at the same time.”

“You’re kidding me.” Michael said. “You’re a fucking moron.”

“The guy also has four days to find which dimension the monsters came from before they destroy the barriers between dimensions and causing the universe to collapse or something.” Gavin added. Michael sighed.

“So why’re you asking me for help? And why am I the only who can hear and see you?” he asked.

“Well, you kinda helped me out a lot in fighting the monsters.” Michael looked surprised. Him? Fight heroes? Somehow that idea made him really happy.

“Seriously? I killed monsters?!” Gavin nodded.

“You were good at it too. We were kind of... best friends. I worked at Roosterteeth too, y’know, you were the first to find out about my powers.” Gavin looked a bit uncomfortable, but Michael didn’t notice.

“Okay so I have to help you do what exactly?” he asked. Gavin looked surprised, as if he didn’t expect Michael to believe him.

“Well first off I need my dimension traveling device, it looks like a chain necklace with a scythe charm.”

“Well let’s go find it then.”

They looked all over Michael’s apartment. Nothing.

“Maybe it’s in the office?” Michael suggested. Gavin shrugged.

“We usually went here to travel, that’s why you can hear me the most here because the barriers are a bit worn out. I was here the last time I was in this universe, there’s a small chance it’s there.”

“Hey, where are you anyway?” Michael asked. Gavin looked around him as if that would help somehow, then shrugged.

“Probably in some in between place, not really sure.” A clap of thunder made them both jump.

Gavin swore, well Michael thought it was a swear at least. It sounded more like a word Gavin had made up.

“What’s up?” Michael asked.

“Thunder attracts dimension monsters. If we can’t find my scythe hopefully we can find your sword.” he said. “It’s probably in one of your jacket pockets, go look.” Michael nodded and went to his room, opened his closet, and looked through his clothes’ pockets.

He found it in one of the jackets he forgot he even owned. It had been shoved to the back, and was a bit wrinkled. His weapon was a snap band with a sword on it that had a gem on the hilt.

It looked awesome.

“Yep, that’s yours.” Gavin said when he found it. “Okay, just tap it then quickly position your hand as if you’re already holding it.”

Michael did what Gavin said and a sword appeared in his hand . “Whoa!” he said. “That’s fucking amazing.” Gavin laughed.

“Each person’s weapon is accustomed to their preference and personality. It starts off as a gem, the one you see on the hilt, then when it’s touched by someone, it’ll turn into an accessory or something and weapon.” he explained.

“So I’m basically wearing a sword on my wrist? That’s fucking weird.” he commented. Gavin shook his head.

“Since we have like, alternate dimensions and stuff, it’s just stored somewhere else. The snap band has magic that helps summon it from where it was.” he explained.

“Wow, so what dimension does it come from?” Gavin shrugged.

“Probably just one full of weapons and stuff.” he stretched. “But right now we gotta go find those monsters before they do any damage.” Michael nodded.

“Where would they be, and what do they look like?” he asked.

“I’m not sure where they are, honestly they could be anywhere, but they’re most likely going to be here, because all our traveling has made the barriers a bit weak, easy to er... chew? I don’t know how to say it. Anyway, they can look like anything, since they’re shapeshifters, but they’re always completely black.”

“Wow, that’s helpful.” Michael said, looking outside his bedroom door. Nothing. A loud crash from the kitchen made Gavin jump again. Michael looked completely calm, holding his sword out in front of him as he slowly walked to the kitchen.


	2. Chapter 2

Gavin followed, a bit nervous. He didn’t like being around the monsters when he was defenseless. But then again, it might not even be able to see him. Who knows what those things can see honestly.

Gavin walked ahead of Michael a bit, a bit braver in knowing that he probably can’t be hurt or seen by the monster. When those things hit, they hit hard.

That’s why it was often for people like Gavin—Constants, they were called—fought with other people. They were dangerous, they’d been ravaging the dimensions for years, and soon they’d break everything if they didn’t get to the bottom of this.

When he arrived at the kitchen, he saw a fully jet black… squid? Weird, they often took shapes of animals but he’d never seen a squid on land before. It’s tentacles were in a bunch of different cabinets, taking out plates and tossing them on the ground. Michael turned around the corner and fumed.

“Hey asshole, what the fuck are you doing!?” he yelled. The squid turned around just as it was about to throw a mug, then put it back in the cabinet.

The squid headed for Michael, ready to attack. Michael lunged forward, dodging the tentacle that the squid jabbed at him. He swung and cut it off. The cut off part fell to the ground and dissolved. The tentacle grew back, which annoyed Michael a bit.

He hacked and slashed at the monster, cutting off its limbs which kept growing back. He dodged its jabs, although he got poked in the stomach once or twice. Eventually he had cut it enough for it the tentacles to stop growing back.

For him fighting felt completely natural, as if he had been fighting all his life. If what Gavin said was true, then that would be partly right. He somewhat liked the idea of being able to kick monster ass.

Michael and Gavin stared at the squid which was now just a head, squirming on the tiled kitchen floor, inching towards Michael. Despite the serious situation, they both laughed for a solid minute before Michael slashed it’s head and it disintegrated.

“Wow.” Michael said, looking at the spot where the monster disappeared. There was no trace of it except for the broken plates and glasses that littered the floor, and a tiny puddle of black liquid where the head was. Michael sighed.

“Now I gotta clean all this shit, asshole squid” he said. He turned to Gavin. “I thought the monsters ate stuff or some shit like that.” Gavin nodded.

“Yeah, they feed on the dimensional barriers by causing chaos, which is what the squid was trying to do. It was actually pretty weak, some do way more damage than a few plates.” he said. Michael shushed him.

“Just be quiet and let me wallow in my amazing victory for a bit.” he said, grinning. Gavin couldn’t help but grin back. Damn, he really missed it when Michael grinned at him. It felt like ages since he had, even though it was only a few weeks.

He missed Michael. Well, not as much anymore, but he still kinda missed the Michael who actually knew who he was.

But he looked at Michael grinning at him like the adorable bastard he is, and he kinda just... forgot. He’d try and grab Michael’s hand and squeeze it as they walked like they used to always do, or rest his head on his shoulder when they sat, but he’d pull back when he remembered that he wasn’t even tangible, and Michael barely even knew who he was.

“So.” Michael said. “We were looking for your scythe right?” Gavin nodded. They decided to look around Michael’s apartment again.

After an hour of searching, Michael plopped down on his couch and sighed, ready to give up.

“Are you sure it’s not in the office? We’ve looked everywhere and not a single trace.” he said, rubbing his eyes. Gavin thought for a moment.

“Actually, it might be at my desk, maybe you can check tomorrow?” he suggested. Michael nodded.

“Yeah sure, but how do you have a desk there if you don’t exist?”

“You know that spare desk next to yours where guests and stuff sit? Yeah, there.” he said.

There was a spare desk next to his, it had a computer and television and xbox and everything. It was just there for guests in their Lets Plays, usually Ryan or Caleb. Michael inwardly groaned at the idea of having to sneak around and try to find it, he’d have to find a good excuse.

He glanced at the clock. He should probably go to bed if he wanted to get any sleep at all.

“Well, I’m going to go to bed, it’s late. Where are you going to..?” Michael realized that Gavin  probably hadn’t slept anywhere the last few days. “Er, do you even need sleep?” Gavin nodded. “Where’ve you been sleeping?”

“Uh, just random places around here, I didn’t really want to stay too far from you...” he said.

“Wait, so you’ve been following me around the entire time you’ve been in the in between dimension place?” Michael asked. Gavin nodded slowly, and as far as Michael could tell his semi-transparent face was red.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll just sleep on the couch or something.” he said.

“Are you sure?” Michael asked, looking a bit worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” he said. Michael shrugged and reluctantly headed to his room, leaving Gavin alone on the couch. He watched Michael as he left, kind of wishing he hadn’t told Michael not to worry. The lights in the bedroom turned off.

For some reason Michael didn’t turn the living room lights off, probably forgot Gavin can’t shut them off. Well, he could, but it wouldn’t be off for Michael, only in wherever Gavin was.

He lay down and closed his eyes, but sleep didn’t come, not for at least half an hour. And when he did, the nightmares came back.

It wasn’t easy fighting the dimension monsters alone, he had done it a good month or so before Michael found out. They could actually be pretty terrifying. Ever since Gavin had found his powers he had gotten nightmares about them.

He didn’t get that much at first, and he’d barely remember them in the morning anyway. But the closer the due date to defeating them came, the more nightmares he had. He had twice as many when he had entered the in between place he was in right now.

He’d dream of something coming to attack him, or he’d be fighting a monster and no matter what it wouldn’t get hurt. It wouldn’t even dissolve, whatever he cut off lay on the ground and stayed there, and somehow it bothered him.

Or he’d dream that his friends were hurt because he brought them with him, or that he’d wake up and they were all gone. Sometimes he’d dream that one day he’d wake up and no one remembered him

The worst part was that the last one already happened.

Most of the dreams involved fighting the monsters or his friends getting hurt. Sometimes they weren’t even all that horrible, but just the atmosphere alone terrified Gavin.  He awoke with a start.

He sat up and stared at the all in front of him, the nightmare already slipping away from him. All he remembered was that there was blood, a lot of it. He didn’t even notice himself tearing up a bit until he put his hands on his face.

“Goddammit, it’s just a bloody dream, man up.” he told himself. “You barely even remember what happened.”  He lay back down and closed his eyes. He tried to calm himself down, but he couldn’t. He shakily stood up.

He hadn’t told him, but whenever he’d gotten a nightmare he’d sneak into Michael’s room and lay beside him. Michael never noticed, and most times Gavin got up first anyway. But now Michael was aware of him and he didn’t think it’d be as easy anymore.

But it was either that or not sleep, so he went anyway. He slowly opened the door to make sure it didn’t make a sound, although Michael would only barely hear it. He lay down next to Michael, hoping he wouldn’t wake up. Michael’s back was to him.

Gavin felt more calm just lying there. Before he was... erased he’d be hugging Michael or maybe even talk to him. But even if he couldn’t do that anymore, just lying there made him feel better. He smiled, and closed his eyes.

The next morning Michael woke up to his alarm beeping, reminding him that he has ten minutes to get ready or he’s going to be late. He groaned and turned around, refusing to get up. He vaguely felt something in his hand, and the bed dipped down a bit next to him.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked beside him. Gavin was sleeping next to him, his hand in Michael’s. Michael raised an eyebrow. He guessed the couch probably wasn’t so comfortable, so he transferred here. But the hand holding?

Michael didn’t even mind that much for some reason. He didn’t want to get up, because he was afraid he’d wake up Gavin, but they had to get going, so he squeezed Gavin’s hand and got up. Gavin stirred. Michael was walking out the door by the time he was fully awake. Gavin stared at his hand. Did that just...?

“Dude hurry the fuck up, you’re gonna make me late!” Michael called from outside. Gavin could hear Michael messing around in the kitchen. “Hey, do you need to like, bathe or eat or anything? Still not one hundred percent sure how this works.”

Gavin smiled. “No, I don’t, not until you get me out of here. I am hungry though, so you owe me lunch as soon as I get out!.” he called back. He heard Michael laugh as he walked into the kitchen. Michael was leaning over the counter, a bowl of cereal in his had, a spoon in the other.

“Are you sure you can’t eat or anything?” he asked. Gavin shook his head.

“I doubt it.”

Michael shrugged and shoved another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. Gavin sat on one of the stools in front of Michael, on the other side of the counter.

It was silent for a few minutes, except for the sound of the spoon scooping cereal out of the bowl and Michael occasionally slurping some milk. He then placed the bowl on the counter, drank some water, and told Gavin to wait.

“I’m just gonna go shower.” he said. Gavin nodded. He stared at the counter the entire time, thinking about what had happened when had woken up. Michael didn’t say anything about it, so Gavin decided to not either.

“Let’s go, we gotta walk and I don’t want to be late.” Michael said, slinging his backpack on his back when he came back. They walked the small distance from Michael’s apartment complex to the office, and all they had to do now was to wait until everyone went out to lunch.

Gavin sat at the desk where he used to always be, and watched everyone work. It was a bit weird, even after a few weeks he still wasn’t that used to not existing. He watched Michael edit some videos, watched them record a few Lets Plays, and he’d talk sometimes, as he always did.

He could use the computer, but he still wasn’t sure what he’d do. Check up on his friends? Edit? He didn’t have anything to edit, and he wasn’t exactly sure how he could check up on anyone.

He was tempted to play some video games, but he didn’t feel like it. He didn’t have enough patience to play right now.

He barely even had the patience to wait for lunch, but eventually it came. All the other Achievement Hunters got up and went to go eat.

“You coming?” Geoff asked Michael. He shook his head.

“I got a few more things to finish up.” he replied, not looking up from the computer screen, but glancing at Gavin. Geoff shrugged.

“Okay then.” he said, leaving the room. Ray raised an eyebrow as he left, but didn’t say anything. Once the door closed Michael immediately stood up.

“So, let’s get your necklace thing, shall we?” he said, looking at the desk next to him. It was a mess. It had a lot of holes and drawings, pretty beaten up from use. Since it didn’t really belong to anyone, they hadn’t felt the need to replace it.

“Hmm,” Gavin said, looking at the desk. “I think I see it in this hole, at the very back of the drawer.”

“Didn’t you look while waiting?” Michael asked. Gavin shook his head. “I mean, there’s not much to look at, and I wanted to watch you guys record and stuff, so I decided you could look.” Michael rolled his eyes and muttered something Gavin didn’t hear.

Michael opened the drawer and looked inside. Surely enough, there was a silver chain necklace with a scythe charm on it, near the end. Gavin grinned.

“Brilliant!” he said. “Okay, so now you need to hold the chain, and I’ll grab the charm, hopefully that’ll bring me back.” Michael didn’t like the sound of ‘hopefully’, but he went with it anyway.

He held the necklace by the chain and held it out in front of him, a bit worried about what will happen. It was probably written all over his face, because Gavin assured him that everything would be fine, before he grabbed the charm.

There was a big flash of light, and it felt like something was pulling on the necklace. Michael pulled back, hoping it wouldn’t break. The lights in the room flickered, maybe even the lights in the entire office, and then everything was calm again. The lights were off, so Michael couldn’t see anything

Michael was pushed to the floor by a weird force. Some people outside yelled in frustration.

He didn’t have the necklace in his hand anymore, and it wasn’t just the lights not working, it seemed that the electricity had gone out. It was pitch black, even if there were windows and it was still the afternoon, which freaked Michael out a bit.

A few seconds later Michael saw through the crack under the door that the lights came back. He heard a few whoops of joy from his coworkers outside, but it was still dark in the Achievement Hunter office. He heard the sound of metal hitting metal, and slowly it became bright again.

In front of him stood Gavin, holding a scythe that was a bit taller than him, with a terrifying curved black blade. It looked badass.

He smiled, then twisted the middle part of the scythe, which was black unlike the rest of the handle, which was grey, and looked like some sort of grip, like one on rackets but probably thinner. The scythe retracted back into a necklace.

“So, how about lunch?” he asked, offering a hand to Michael

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huuge thanks to senorfauxhawk for being my artist and illustrating Michael and Gav fighting the squid (http://i.snag.gy/3ETby.jpg) and also sleeping! (http://i.snag.gy/m4q6l.jpg)


	3. Chapter 3

They ate lunch at a nearby restaurant, and Gavin was not joking when he said he was hungry. He ate like he hadn’t in weeks. Well, he actually hadn’t, so that made sense. Michael didn’t understand how he went weeks without food or water, but he didn’t ask.

He smiled as he watched Gavin, who was sitting across him, dig in, barely even breathing for the first minute or two.

“So uh,” Michael said, fiddling with his fork and his meal. “Were we... together or something? Like, before you were erased?” Gavin choked on his food.

Michael’s eyes widened, and was going to reach over and help but Gavin held up a hand. He coughed for a minute or so before he took a gulp of water.

“Jeebus lorenzo.” he muttered before drinking a bit more water. He was about to respond when they heard a voice from behind them.

“Hey Michael!” he turned around. It was Ray. “Oh hey, is this your—” he stopped himself. His eyes widened.

“Vav! You’re back!” he said, smiling as he slid into the booth next to Michael. Gavin looked pleasantly surprised, but not that much, like he knew something like this was going to happen, but not the details. Michael was completely confused.

“Wait, you know him?” he asked, pointing to Gavin

“Yeah, don’t you? It’s Gavin!” he said. Michael rolled his eyes.

“I’m eating lunch with him dumbass. I was wondering how you remembered who he was.” the second he said it he realized he probably shouldn’t have said that. Did Ray even know about all this?

“Ah,” Gavin said before Ray could reply. “Since I’m back in this universe, everyone’ll get their memories of me back, and eventually things will go back to normal. Some people remember faster than others, so yeah.” Ray nodded. Then he raised his eyebrows and his smile grew into a grin that could only be described as shit eating.

“Ooh, Michael doesn’t remember anything. That must be real tough for you Gavin.” he said, winking. Gavin turned red and looked like he was about to injure Ray.

“Hey! I’m starting to remember some things, that’s why I asked Gavin if—”

“So Ray, are you going to help us find which dimension the monsters are coming from? We only have a few days left.” Gavin said, changing the topic. Gavin’s face was quite red now, and Michael wasn’t sure if he felt bad or amused. He decided on amused.

“Hell yeah, but I need to find my bow and arrow first, I kinda lost it.” he said, looking a bit embarrassed. Gavin laughed.

“How on earth did you mess up like that?”

“Hey! At least I’m still in this universe!” he replied. Michael snorted. Gavin attempted to glare at him and failed, eventually grinning.

“Anyway, you sure? It’ll probably show up now that you got your memories back.” Ray raised an eyebrow.

“You sure?” Gavin nodded.

“Check your pockets maybe?” he suggested. Ray reached into his pocket.

“Well shit, it’s here.” he said, pulling out a black watch, the strap had an image of a bow on it.

“So, how many days do we have?” he asked, putting on his watch.. Gavin coughed.

“Uh, three.”

“Seriously dude? Last time you said we had weeks!” he said. Gavin smiled nervously.

Michael noted how he looked idiotically adorable when he smiled, then told himself to concentrate before he got on thinking about the things he’s been remembering and how he woke up holding Gavin’s hand and zone out completely out of the conversation, and then realized he actually had for a moment.

Staring right at Gavin as well. Both he and Ray were looking at him,  as if he had just been asked something.

“Oh uh, sorry what? I zoned out.” he said. Ray’s famous annoyingly smug grin returned.

“I said we should probably head back to the office.” he said. Michael agreed. They paid for their lunch, and left the restaurant.

“So, you at least have your weapon back right?” Ray asked Michael as they walked back to the office. Michael nodded.

“Remember anything about your magic?”

“Wait, my magic?” Michael asked.

“You have magic dude! Everyone has a corresponding field of magic. Gavin has wind, I have fire, and you have ice.” Michael’s eyes widened.

“Well fuck dude, you could’ve told me sooner. How do I use it?”

“Magic is pretty much how much energy you have and how creative you can get. As long as you can connect an action to your aspect and have enough power to do it, most likely you can. It’ll come back to you eventually, maybe in battle.” Gavin explained. Michael still didn’t fully understand, but he decided not to ask any more. When they were nearing the office they heard a loud crash.

“What was that?!” Gavin exclaimed, sounding a bit panicked. It came from inside the office. From outside the gates they saw a bunch of people rushing outside.

They opened the gates and then ran into the office.There were dimension monsters of different shapes everywhere. They were wrecking everything, breaking glass and overturning chairs. Some people were hiding, some ran past them and followed the others outside.

Geoff was cornered by one of the monsters, shaped like a lion. He was holding a wooden sword a fan gave to them a long time ago in front of him defensively. He and the monster were having some sort of stare down, neither of them moving.

Ryan was hiding behind a chair, frantically looking around for a way to defend himself. Caleb was heading outside, avoiding all the broken glass.

Gavin, Michael, and Ray all pulled out their weapons.

“Make sure no one gets hurt.” Gavin said. Michael and Ray nodded.

Michael decided to go help out Geoff, Gavin went outside to make sure everyone else was okay, Ray went deeper into the office.

Geoff’s eyes widened when he saw Michael, holding a full-sized and very sharp sword. Michael grinned and slashed the monster’s head off. It dissolved, and Geoff sighed in relief.

“Thanks Mi—” the lion’s head grew back. “Shit.” he said, shuffling away from between the monster and the wall before it grew fully. He stood next to Michael, still holding the wooden sword in front of himself.

“So uh, care to explain what the fuck is going on?” he said.

“I’ll explain later, go outside, it’s safer there.” Michael replied. Geoff was about to protest, when the lion turned around, now with a complete head. It growled.

“Yeah okay I’ll go.” he said before running out. The lion pounced, making Michael jump a bit, not very far from wetting his pants. It wasn’t exactly easy to stand down a lion pouncing at you.

He ducked, and the lion jumped over him. He slashed its belly as it passed above him, and it dissolved, covering him in black muck. Huh, must’ve been its weak point.

“Oh that is fucking disgusting.” he said, trying to get the muck off of him as much as he could. He killed a few more monsters, although he noticed there were less than when they had arrived. He checked each room to make sure no one and no monster was left.

Gavin was right about his magic, the more he fought the more he remembered, but his magic wasn’t the only thing that he remembered.

He slashed at monsters, making the area that he cut freeze, preventing it from growing back. After doing it a few times he started to feel tired, and decided to not use it as often. He didn’t want to know what would happen when he over exhausted his magic.

Eventually there were less monsters, and as he checked all the rooms again there was nothing left but some broken furniture and disgusting black muck. Everyone had probably gone outside.

He looked around at the office as he went out, still not putting his sword away just in case. It was weird seeing it in such a mess, and even a bit saddening. He never expected the office to ever get this wrecked.

Everyone was gathered outside, like Michael had guessed. No one seemed to be hurt, but there were a few scratches here and there. Everyone was looking at Gavin and Ray, who both hadn’t put their weapons away either.

It probably seemed a bit unsettling, having monsters attack, then having two of your coworkers and a guy you vaguely remember holding weapons and using magic to kill said monsters. Michael hoped no one would freak out.

Some people looked at Michael when he came out, giving him questioning looks. Jack caught his eye, pointed at Gavin, and raised an eyebrow. Michael mouthed Later.

Gavin explained what was going on to everyone. From the looks on their faces, not all of them remembered him yet. He told them about the monsters, about who he was and how he was erased, and how they had a few days to stop from everything turning to shit.

As soon as he finished people started asking questions all at once, and he held up his hand to silence them. A gesture like that never worked unless Burnie or the like did it, but somehow he got everyone to shut up.

“Look, I’ll answer questions in a bit, I have to do something.” he said, turning towards the office.

“Do what?” Gus asked, sounding a bit impatient. Gavin shushed him. He held up his hand and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate.

Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, but somehow Ray understood what he was trying to do. He backed away from Gavin and opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again, dumbstruck.

Suddenly the ground rumbled a bit, and a few people exclaimed, which almost made Gavin lose his concentration. That would’ve been bad.

Suddenly everything in the office was flying around, and at first it looked like there was a tornado of glass and furniture and then everything cleared. It looked like the monsters hadn’t come at all. Gavin then promptly passed out.

“Oh uh Michael, can you help me carry him to a couch or something?” Ray asked, approaching Gavin. Michael nodded and they carried him to the white couch in the Achievement Hunter office.

“Okay, can someone explain to me what the fuck just happened? Who was that?” Gus asked when they returned. He clearly hadn’t gotten his memories back. Burnie stepped forward and coughed.

“That wasn’t uh, Gavin was it?” he said. Michael nodded.

“Yeah he said he erased himself from this universe right? Not all of you probably remember but you will eventually.” he explained. Gus was about to interject when Miles cut in.

“Wait, what happened to the office? One second it was broken to shit and the next it’s just like before.” he asked, staring inside. Michael shrugged and looked at Ray.

“Oh, right. You see his magic is wind, and somehow he connected wind to fixing things, probably how it’d all fly and be fixed. I’m surprised he accomplished that really, with it both being barely in his capabilities and being in a big scale it probably used a lot of his energy. He’ll probably be out for a while.”

“Hang on, we don’t have much time, we have like three days until the end of the world or some shit? How long is he gonna be out?”

Ray coughed. “Might be five to twelve hours.” he said. Michael groaned.

“That’d be just enough time to give us a full update and not just the basic gist of what’s happening right? Because I’m still not one hundred percent sure what’s going on.” Geoff said. Michael rubbed the back of his neck, not quite sure how to explain everything.

“How about we all head to the conference room and start there? It’s better than staying out here in the heat.” Burnie suggested. They all agreed and went to the conference room.

“Oh hey can we get some food first? I am starving.” Ray said, putting his hand on his stomach. Burnie shrugged and gestured to the kitchen.

“Go ahead, you can bring it into the room.” he said. Michael and Ray hurriedly got some sandwiches, soda, and whatever snack they found. Ray was not exaggerating when he said he was starving. Fighting gave you quite an appetite.

They also got their bags from the Achievement Hunter Office and packed a few necessities, just in case they had to leave in a hurry. Michael had a feeling they probably would.

When they arrived in the conference room they explained everything in full, first how Michael started hearing, then seeing Gavin, how he brought him back, how Ray remembered everything again, then they explained what happened before; Gavin being a dimension traveler and having erased himself, and the monsters and what they did and what they might do if they didn’t find the source dimension. Ray did most of the talking in the second part, which helped Michael refresh his returning memories.

It was pretty silent when they finished. No one spoke, letting it all sink in/.The silence was broken by Gavin, who entered the room, grinning hugely.

“Hello, I see you’re all caught u— ooh! Can I have some?” he said, grabbing the bag of chips Michael was eating and sitting in the chair next to him before he could answer.

“Hey, are you okay? That was a pretty big feat of magic you did.” Michael asked, a bit concerned. Gavin nodded, still grinning.

“Dude, that was top. I never thought I’d ever be able to do something like that!” he said, mouth full of chips. Michael cringed at the sight.

“Okay then. Well, since everyone’s up to speed, we should probably all get back to work.” Burnie said, standing. Everyone slowly left, some people clapping Gavin, Michael, or Ray on the back, wishing them luck and some thanking them.

“So, what are you guys going to do now?” Burnie asked when everyone left. They all looked at Gavin, who was still eating. He chewed for a few seconds then swallowed before speaking.

“Well, since I’m fully rested, we should probably start looking for the source dimension. We’ve been looking for weeks, we’ll probably be close.” he said.

“Hang on, how do we find it anyway?” Michael asked.

“Oh, I kinda just take us to a random dimension, and hope we get it right. It’ll be obvious when we get there, don’t worry.” he said. Michael rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, that’s real effective.”.

Gavin looked slightly offended. “Don’t underestimate my instincts, there’ll be a lot of dark energy in the source dimension, I’ll be able to sense that.”

“Okay!” Burnie said, clapping his hands together. “You guys should probably get going now right? Doomsday is coming, don’t waste your time arguing like little children. Go!” He gestured for them to leave. “Oh yeah, try not to die okay?”

Ray laughed. “We’ll try.”

They all stood, and Gavin brought out his scythe. He slashed the air, and a vertical crack appeared in the air.

“Good luck.” Burnie said. Gavin glanced at Michael.

“Ready?” he asked. Michael grinned then nodded.

“Yeah, Team Nice Dynamite Right?” he said. Gavin looked absolutely elated at that.

He took a deep breath, touched the crack, and disappeared. Ray and Michael followed.

Dimension travel felt weird, Michael thought. It felt like he was being stretched and squished and pulled and flipped and twisted, and yet it didn’t hurt. It was just really disorienting. He couldn’t even see anything.

When Michael could see again and was standing upright, they were at the entrance of some sort of maze.

“Bollocks.” Gavin muttered. The walls were grey and looked quite old, but not ancient. There were a few cracks here and there, and torches lined the walls. Upon close inspection he found out that the fire wasn’t real, just magical fire that was for light only.

There were three different passageways in front of them.

“So, let’s split up, yeah?” Gavin asked. Michael nodded.

“Be careful.” he said. Gavin smiled, and told Michael he’d be fine. They parted ways. Gavin took the rightmost passage, Michael the middle one, and Ray the leftmost one.

It wasn’t so dark in the maze, but the grey walls were a bit unsettling. Gavin weaved his way through the maze, not really giving much thought to where he went. Eventually he reached a room a bit less lit up than the maze was.

He felt that there was weird energy inside and shivered. In the middle of the room there was someone there, a female. The person turned around.

“Lindsay?” he said. She saw Gavin, and smiled. There was an...odd look to her. Gavin wasn’t sure why. Probably because she was a bit different in this dimension.

“Hi Gavin.” she said. He noticed she had a ring on her right pointer finger. A weapon.

“So uh, you fight as well?” he asked, gesturing to the ring. She looked confused for a second, then realized what she was talking about. In one swift motion she closed her fist, touching the gem on the ring, and positioned her hands. Two daggers appeared in them.

“Yeah, I forgot how well you notice things like that.” she replied.

“How’d you get them? Did I give them to you?” he asked. She hesitated.

“...Sort of.” she said, glancing at the daggers in her hands.

“So what’re you doing here?” he asked. Their eyes met, and something in her eyes caught Gavin off guard. He couldn’t figure out what. She averted her eyes to the torches on the walls, the fires not as bright as in the maze halls.

“I got lost. Decided to stay in here, because y’know, it’s a room. I thought maybe I could find a way out from here.” she said. Gavin raised an eyebrow.

“Where’s everyone else?” he asked. Lindsay tensed. Her expression hardened.

“You’re in danger Gavin, I’d suggest you get out of here.” she said. Fiddling with the handles of her daggers.

“What d’you mean?” Gavin asked. He’s always in danger. That was a given honestly. So why was she...?

“I mean it.” She said. They locked eyes again. This time neither of them looked away.

“They’re all gone, Gavin.” she said.

“G-gone?” Gavin’s eyes widened, his brain not quite processing the thought.

“They’re all dead.” she growled. “Because of you!”

Gavin stepped back. “What?”

“It’s all your fault!” she lunged at him. Time seemed to slow down. Gavin was too shocked to react.

“Move!” he vaguely heard someone shout. His body somehow responded, and he rolled to the right. A body slammed into Lindsay’s. There was a bit of struggle, Lindsay was hit on the head, and she fainted. The new person turned to Gavin, with a familiar smile on his face.

Gavin felt a rush of relief.

“B?”


	4. Chapter 4

Before Dan could answer, Michael came into the room, followed by Ray.

“Hey Dan did you fin—” his eyes fell to Gavin on the floor and Lindsay passed out. “What happened?” Dan glanced at Lindsay, his face looking grim.

“Let’s get out of here first, then I’ll explain.” he said, reaching down to carry Lindsay. Michael shot Gavin a questioning look.  He shrugged.

“I honestly don’t know either.” he said.

They all left the room, Gavin looking back at it one last time, shuddering a bit at all the dark magic he could feel inside of it. Dan set Lindsay down, propping her up against the wall so she was sitting. Gavin noticed that she had a bruise on her head, probably from Dan hitting her.

“Will she be okay?” Gavin asked. Dan nodded

“She’s been in that room too long, but she’ll be fine.”  He didn’t look very sure of himself. He sighed and plopped down on the floor next to Lindsay. “So, story time eh?”

They all sat on the floor of the maze, which didn’t look as creepy as it had when they walked alone. Dan told them about what had happened in the dimension.

“So you know, the regular thing happens in most dimensions, Gavin finds out about his abilities and such, he invites a few friends for some monster ass-kicking, and then—”

“Shit kicks off?” Michael joked. They all laughed.

“Yeah,” Dan said, nodding.

“Except things don’t go so well this time. Somehow, I’m not exactly sure, I wasn’t with everyone at the time. Suddenly everyone is dead.” he said, staring at the floor.

“Wait, dead?” Ray said. “Like, no-pulse-cold-as-a-fucking-brick dead?” Dan nodded.

“I don’t know what happened. I just came back to Austin and people tell me you’re all dead.”

“Everyone? What do you mean by everyone?” Michael asked.

“You. Gavin. Ray. Geoff. Ryan. Jack. Caleb. Everyone at Roosterteeth, dead.” he said. No one spoke.

The words took a moment to sink in. Everyone.

Dead.

“Only Lindsay survived. Somehow she got lucky enough to not be at the office when it happened. The thing is, the monsters—or whoever is behind them—took advantage of the situation.”

“They found her and convinced her to take a gem, it’s exactly like the ones you give except... dark. She can shapeshift, like the dimension monsters. They locked her up in that room and told her lies and convinced her to want to kill you.” he said. They all looked at Lindsay, still passed out.

“Will she be okay?” Michael asked, even if Gavin already had asked the same thing minutes before.

“Hopefully. I’ll find a way to help her, maybe just getting out of the room will help.” Dan stood up. “So, I think you guys need to go.” They were about to protest when Dan shook his head.

“I doubt she’ll get any better with the alternate versions of her friends mucking about, and you need to find the source dimension as soon as possible.” Gavin nodded, a bit anxious to go. He wanted to get out of there as soon as he could.

“Okay, let’s go then. Bye Dan!” he said. Dan smiled.

“Good luck.” and with that they left.

One disorienting trip later, they found themselves in some sort of park. It was empty.

Michael and Ray looked at Gavin expectantly, waiting for him to confirm or deny that this was the dimension they were looking for. He opened his mouth to say something, when something huge and black fell on him, knocking him onto the grass.

“Oh shit Gavin!” Michael exclaimed, getting the attention of the monster that had fallen out of the sky. It jumped onto the grass and shifted into a different shape, slightly resembling a bear but a bit bigger,  blocking them from Gavin. They both took out their weapons when they heard a shout.

“There it is!” a throwing star flew and impaled itself into the monster’s face. Nothing happened for a second, then it exploded, along with the monster’s head. Ray and Michael backed away.

Michael looked behind him to see someone running towards them, and another person sitting in a tree nearby. He sighed in relief when he realized who they were.

“Caleb? Ryan?” Ray said. Caleb smiled, Ryan waved from where he was. “Get your weapons out!” he called out. Michael glanced at Gavin, who was still lying on the ground behind the monster, that was staggering around while its head reformed. Caleb followed Michael’s gaze.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get to him once we deal with this monster.” he said, already next to them. “Come on!”

Caleb threw another star, which merely grazed the monster’s arm. Caleb made a gesture as if pulling a door open, and the star spun and flew back like a boomerang, this time cutting into the monster’s arm, but the monster pulled it out before he could blow it up.

It smacked Caleb with its hand, knocking him backwards. It turned to Michael when it got shot five times, from Ryan who was shooting from a tree with a sniper rifle. The bullets didn’t do much to the monster, and it reached over to hit Michael, then froze.

The bullets had electrocuted the monster, the holes pulsing with electricity. But it was only paralyzed for a few seconds, giving Caleb enough time to stand up and attack again. He aimed for the monster’s head.

Ray shot arrow after arrow at the monster, occasionally sending a flaming one. Michael tried to put as much distance between the monster and Gavin, backing away in an attempt to make the monster follow.

He slashed at the monster and tried to avoid any attacks, whether the ones from the monster or when his friends would miss. He almost got shot on the ankle by one of Ray’s stray arrows, but Caleb had noticed and used his magic to miss.

The monster roared and swiped at the arrows and the throwing stars. It turned around and saw Gavin on the ground, who was already quite far away, and went to attack him, clearly seeing that he was vulnerable.

Michael yelled to get the bear’s attention, but he failed. It continued going for Gavin. Michael ran towards the bear, sliding under its legs as he passed, slicing its lower half vertically. It took him a moment to stand up, but luckily enough the monster was busy regrowing itself.

Gavin, having been weakened by all the dark magic in the room he found in the maze, from depleting his energy from fixing the office, and the daze of being crushed by a heavy dimension monster, still managed to stagger up to try and help, but Michael didn’t let him fight.

“Dude, just sit down and rest okay? We got this, you need rest.” he said. Gavin shook his head and shakily took out his scythe. Ray shot an arrow at his feet, making him yelp and jump back.

“What was that for?” he said.

“Dude, just rest. You’ve used up your magic once already, and I’m surprised you haven’t burnt up or something yet.” Ray said, going back to shooting at the monster. Gavin sighed, muttered something about feeling useless so far, and sat back down. He felt like he’d done nothing this entire time, first getting himself erased and wasting time, then running into Lindsay and getting caught of guard, now he was sitting down while everyone was fighting.

Michael returned to the monster, slashing at it some more, barely leaving himself room to breathe. He stabbed at it until his arms hurt, and only came back to reality when Caleb yelled at him to move out of the way.

Caleb threw five stars at once, making them all explode. Finally, the monster disintegrated. As soon as the fight was over Michael felt tired. It was a big monster and took a lot of energy to defeat, even for four people.

There was nothing left except for a puddle of black goo. Michael approached Gavin and held out a hand. Gavin took it, and he pulled him up.

“Hey are you okay?” Michael asked, looking a bit worried. Gavin nodded. Then Michael punched him on the shoulder, but not very hard, since his arms still ached a bit.

“Ow! What was that for?” he said.

“Stop hurting yourself so much dumbass.” Michael said. He tried to look annoyed, but failed and a grin slowly creeped onto his face.

“Well I’m glad you’re okay.” he said. Gavin grinned.

“I’m tippity top!” he said. Michael rolled his eyes, still grinning. They joined Ryan, Ray, and Caleb, who were sharing stories.

“So, are you guys the only people other than me who fight here?” Gavin asked. Caleb shrugged and looked at Ryan, who looked like he didn’t know either.

“All I know is the you from this universe is out adventuring and stuff, and he left us here to protect the universe and stuff.” he said. Gavin thought it was a bit strange that he’d just leave his friends like that, but then again him from here probably didn’t think the same way he did.

He decided to change the topic before he hurts his own brain with dimension stuff. Caleb looked worriedly at Gavin.

“Hey man are you sure you’re okay? You look a bit shaken up.” he said. Gavin rolled his eyes.

“Yes I’m fine okay? A monster just fell on me no big deal.” Michael raised an eyebrow.

“You used up your powers fixing the office today, spent like ten minutes in a room that apparently has a lot of dark magic, and got squished by a monster. I’d be really surprised if you’re not even a bit tired.” he said.

“Wait wait, you used up your powers today?” Caled asked. Gavin nodded sheepishly. “How long did you rest?”

“Uh, an hour or two.” Gavin said, looking at the ground. He knew what was coming next.

“Okay yeah you need to rest. Two hours is definitely not enough time to rest after depleting your powers.” He turned to Michael and Ray. “You guys should probably rest too, come on.”

Michael took in his surroundings as they walked, since he hadn’t been able to when they got in initially. The park was in the middle of a group of tall buildings, with a road separating the buildings and the park, which was lined by a metal fence. It seemed pretty empty, which was strange. You’d think a city like this would have people, but it was deserted except for the five of them.

It had a bit of an apocalyptic atmosphere. He wondered why Gavin left Ryan and Caleb here to protect the universe if there was practically nothing to protect.

Caleb led them into one of the smaller buildings in the area, a regular looking house instead of a skyscraper. It looked a bit out of place, but Michael felt relieved that they didn’t have to go up any stairs. If they had, he’d probably collapse.

Caleb pushed open the door to reveal a room that resembled an apartment of some sorts, all the rooms blended into one. Near the right wall were about five bunk beds, to the left a couch with a television, and near the back was a kitchen. Next to the furthest bunk were two doors.

“Sleep.” Ray said, heading directly to the bunk beds and passing out in one of them. Gavin followed in the bed next to it shortly after. Ryan chuckled and turned to Michael.

“Why don’t you get some rest as well?” he said. Michael hesitated.

“It’s fine man, you can rest. Don’t worry, we’ll wake you up in an hour or two.” Caleb said. Michael sighed.

“Okay, but promise me that you’ll wake Gavin up at least after three hours. We’re pressed for time but that fucker needs some rest.” Caleb nodded, and he crashed on one of the beds as well.


	5. Chapter 5

Michael woke up two hours later. He lay in his bed, trying to get himself to wake up. He needed to get ready, he was going to be late for work—

“Oh, he’s awake… I think.” A familiar voice said. Oh. He wasn’t home. Right.

He opened his eyes, grabbed his glasses from the table next to the bed, and sat up. Caleb, Ryan, and Ray were sitting at a table, eating lunch and chatting. Ray nodded at Michael as he stood up.

“Looks like I didn’t have to wake anyone up except Gavin.” Caleb said. “Feel rested Michael?” He nodded, still a bit groggy. He took sat next to Ryan.

“So what’s our plan now?” he asked. Ray raised an eyebrow.

“Plan? The same as it’s been for like a year. Go through universes, don’t die, find the source.” Michael rolled his eyes.

“Yeah but we don’t have enough time to fool around anymore! We need something more specific.” he said.

“What about you try and get Gavin to aim for a universe? Maybe he can pinpoint places with a lot of dark magic and get you guys there.” Ryan suggested. Michael glanced at Gavin, who was still asleep. He sighed.

“That may work, but I don’t want to tire him out again. He’s been overexerting himself a lot, and I doubt it’d be a good idea for him to do it again.” he said, still looking at Gavin.

“Then we’re gonna have to stick to the current plan, and hope we get lucky.” Ray shrugged. “If worse comes to worst though, we’ll have to ask him to at least try.”

The meal was silent after that. Michael decided to go out and explore a bit, but only under the condition that he didn’t go very far, in case he got lost or got attacked. He didn’t plan on going very far anyway, he just wanted some fresh air and some space to walk.

He walked along the edge of the park where the fought the monster earlier, deep in thought. He didn’t get the chance to sort out the memories that he got back when he did, but now he was. It was strange to him how a big chunk of his life could just be forgotten like that. He remembered when Gavin first told him about his powers, when he first got his weapon, when Ray finally joined them in the adventure.

He also remembered when he and Gavin first kissed.

Yeah, those were the memories that Michael felt the worst about forgetting, even if it wasn’t really his fault. I mean come on, he had told himself. Who falls for someone and then completely forgets about it a month later?

He smiled, glad that at least he got them back.

“MICHEAL GET IN HERE!” Gavin shouted from the door half an hour later, making Michael jump. He looked around to make sure no monsters heard that and felt like coming over to have a snack, then headed back. Gavin and Ray were both ready to leave.

Ray fiddled with the straps of his backpack, and Michael noticed that Caleb or Ryan had given Gavin a new bag, since he didn’t bring one in the first place.

“We’re gonna have to get going now, Thank for helping us.” Gavin said, turning to Ryan and Caleb.

“If you ever need anything you can just come back.” Ryan said, smiling. “Well, if you can.” Michael gathered his things and joined them.  They said goodbye one more time and then left.

Michael prepared himself for anything this time. The spinning finally stopped and Michael could see, expecting some sort of attack or explosion but instead finding that they were in a gazebo in the middle of a garden, and Geoff, lying on a hammock, reading a book. His eyes widened.

“Geoff?” Michael asked. Geoff looked up in shock and at the same time fell off the hammock.

“Shit.” he said from the floor.

“Dude are you okay?” Ray asked, holding out a hand to Geoff to help him up. Geoff took his hand, stood up, and brushed some dust off of his shirt.

“Scared the shit out of me..” he muttered. He set his book down on a table and smiled. “So, what brings you lads here?” Before they could answer, Jack came through the foliage, his sword in hand.

“Did something happen? I heard a scream.” he said, looking a bit confused when he just saw them standing there. Geoff chuckled.

“Nah, just some alt lads who appeared and gave me a heart attack.” he said. Jack lowered his sword, a smile forming on his face.

“Alternate dimension lad eh?” he said, looking them up and down. “So, would you like to uh.. hang out a bit?” Geoff rolled his eyes.

“Jack is always so interested in the lives of people from other dimensions. He always asks them about their life story and shit before they can leave.” Gavin smiled.

“That’s understandable.” he said. “Why don’t we walk?”

They walked through the garden and shared their stories, Jack obviously very interested. Geoff proudly proclaimed how he had worked so damn hard to have the garden this nice.

“Yeah, Griffon put a lot of effort into the garden.” Jack joked. Geoff was about to protest that he did in fact help, at least a bit, when Jack suddenly stopped walking.

“Hey Geoff?” he said, looking worried.

“What is it?” Geoff said, also stopping.

“Where are we?” Geoff was about to laugh at his question He knew how to get his way around the garden and would’ve easily made fun of Jack’s lack of direction, but when he looked around he realized he actually didn’t know. HIs eyes widened. Something was wrong, he thought as he reached for his weapon.

Suddenly something reached out and dragged Ray into the bushes.

“Oh shi—” Jack took out his sword, but at the same time something dragged him into the bushes as well. Gavin felt something tug his hand, and turned around to see Michael was grabbing his hand before it slipped and he was dragged away as well.

He took out his scythe, expecting something to try and grab him as well, but nothing came. He saw a figure dart through the leaves, and turned to see a dimension monster staring at him. It sort of resembled the human, but the only feature he could distinguish was its disturbing grin. It spoke, something he hadn’t witnessed before. Its voice was deep and sinister.

“The others have perished. Surrender now or you and your friends will perish as well.” It said. This was obviously a poor attempt at intimidation, but something about it bothered him.

“The others?” he asked. The monster laughed, but it sounded more like a weird gurgle.

“You’ll find out soon.” Gavin rolled his eyes and held out his scythe between him and the monster.

“Why don’t you just bloody leave us alone yeah? It’d be easier for everyone.” He said.

The monster laughed again, and at the same time Gavin attacked.

He slashed at the monster, although it felt like he was fighting smoke. It disappeared and reappeared, changing its form to dodge his attacks. Monsters did this sometimes, but none of them were as quick as this one.

He was about to slash at it again when he heard a scream. It was a bit muffled,  and he wasn’t quite sure who was screaming, but it was definitely one of his friends. He hesitated, and almost didn’t dodge the monster’s next attack.

He fought more forcefully after hearing the scream, the faster he could finish this the faster he can get to whoever was in trouble. The monster noticed it, and grinned even more, which just pissed Gavin off. He slashed at it again, practically cutting off its head.

He slashed at the neck more before it could reform, then slammed it backwards with the other end of his scythe. It crashed into the bushes, and Gavin ran. The beast reappeared in from of him, smiling and wagging its finger. Gavin didn’t notice that the monster didn’t attack, only dodging Gavin’s attacks.

“Now now Gavin, there’s no need to run.” Gavin gritted his teeth and sliced it in half, sending wind through his attack. He caught the monster’s look of shock before it exploded into goo. He blinked, realizing what he just did.

“That was top,” he muttered to himself, grinning.  Another scream caught his attention, and he continued running into the garden which now seemed more like a forest.

He ran for quite a while, keeping his eyes out for any more enemies. Eventually he found a small clearing, where he saw his friends all huddled around something. Gavin realized that they were gathered around Michael, who was sitting on the ground and had a bandage on his left arm that was soaked with blood. Michael’s eyes widened once he saw Gavin, and was about to run to him, but Geoff beat him to it.

“Oh thank fuck you’re okay!” he said, looking relieved. Michael moved to stand, but Jack told him to not move, as he was going to replace the bandages. Michael rolled his eyes, told Jack to wait for a bit, and approached Gavin.

“Where the fuck have you been?” he asked, looking a bit annoyed.

“What? We were separated!” Gavin replied. “What happened to your arm?!”  Michael rolled his eyes.

“Gavin, you’ve been gone for two hours.” Geoff said, putting his hand on Gavin’s arm. Gavin’s eyes widened.

“Two hours?!” he exclaimed. “We’ve only been separated for half an hour haven’t we?” Geoff shook his head.

“The things that took us away didn’t hurt us, they just shoved us away and disappeared, but we did get separated for a bit. We found each other here. We waited for you for two hours dude, you just showed up now.”

Gavin shook his head. “No way, I swear it hasn’t been that long.” Geoff shrugged. “Also if they didn’t hurt you, then what happened to Michael?” Michael grinned sheepishly.

“I attacked it before it got away. It uh, didn’t like that.” Gavin snorted. They all sat down and he told them what happened.

“The others?” Ray asked when he got to the monster’s message. Gavin shrugged.

“He didn’t explain of anything. It was probably just trying to scare me or something.” he said, trying to act calm, but he looked a bit rattled.

“Did it work?” Michael asked. Gavin shook his head and forced a laugh.

“It’s just a dumb monster, no big deal.” he lied. Michael raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

“Well what do you think he meant?” Jack asked. Gavin thought for a moment. He hadn’t had enough time to think since he met the monster.

“I dunno..” he said, looking uncomfortable. “I have an idea but…”

“But what?” Gavin waved his hand dismissively.

“Nevermind, it’s dumb anyway. The monster was probably lying or something.” he said. It was getting dark, so Geoff suggested they go inside and stay for the night.

“I guess, wouldn’t hurt to rest.” he said, shrugging. He was still tired.

It was strange, no matter how much he ate or slept he still felt like if he closed his eyes and sat down for a few seconds he’d be fast asleep. It actually wasn’t that surprising, seeing as how much energy he’d been using.

Geoff led them to their house. It looked pretty similar to the Geoff from their universe’s house, which made Gavin feel a bit homesick.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been gone, because of timezones and stuff. He usually could tell what day it was back at home, but his senses haven’t been top notch lately.

As soon as he entered the house he went directly to his room out of habit, but it didn’t seem like Geoff minded. It was plain, probably a guest room. A simple bed was in the corner, big enough to fit one person. On the other side of the room was a door to the bathroom, and next to that was a big wooden closet.  Geoff glanced into the room, standing next to Gavin.

“Oh shit right we only have one extra bed, looks like two of you are gonna sleep on the floor.” he said.

“I get the bed!” Ray called from behind them. Geoff chuckled as he checked the closet for some mattresses. ,

They bathed and got the mattresses and spare blankets, Gavin getting the spot on the floor next to Ray, with Michael laying at his right.

It wasn’t very comfortable, and Gavin wished he had asked if he could sleep on the couch instead, before realizing that no alternate dimensions made Geoff’s couch comfortable to sleep on.

Once again he had a hard time falling asleep. It wasn’t nightmares, he just couldn’t get his eyes to close.

Eventually he ran out of things on the ceiling to stare at, and resorted to staring at the dust bunnies that formed under the bed Ray was sleeping on. He fiddled with the wooden floor, his fingers getting a bit dusty.

He sighed and sat up, staring at the dull grey walls instead, observing every crack and imperfection in the paint. It bothered him how little he’d been able to sleep lately, either from nightmares or not enough time or something else.

He sighed, hugging his knees to his chest. He glanced at Michael, then at Ray. Neither of them seemed to be having any trouble sleeping.

He lay down again, and tried to sleep once more, but something nagged at the back of his head. Something told him that he shouldn’t sleep, but he wasn’t quite sure what or why.

Eventually he fell asleep again, but when he woke up in the morning he didn’t feel any more rested than he did the previous night. Michael was still asleep, but Ray was apparently up. Gavin washed his face then went outside, thinking about making some coffee or something.

He saw Geoff and Ray chatting in the living room, eating some pancakes and watching television. He muttered a greeting to them and headed to the kitchen. He sat on the counter as he waited for the coffee to be made, rubbing his eyes.

The minute the coffee reached his lips he suddenly felt energized. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt a bit different. He joined Ray and Geoff on the couch.

“Morning sleepyhead.” Geoff said. Gavin nodded.

“So, how’s adventuring been?” Geoff asked.

“Well, I got sat on by a monster,” Gavin joked. Geoff laughed.

“That sounds like an interesting story to tell.”

Ray snorted. “Yeah, to you. We had to fight the monster while he lay there like an asshat.”

“I was hurt!” Gavin said indignantly.

“Yeah yeah sure” Ray said. Geoff laughed again.

“Anyway, I think we should leave soon.” Gavin said.

“Why? You just woke up and Michael’s still asleep, I don’t think it’d be a good idea.” Ray said. Gavin shook his head.

“I think we need to leave now.” he said. “I think I can find the source dimension now.”

Ray’s eyes widened. “Wait seriously? How?” he asked.

“I dunno, I can just feel it.” Gavin said, shrugging. “But we should go anyway.” Ray hesitated, then nodded and went to wake up Michael. Geoff studied Gavin. He looked both curious and concerned.

“Are you sure you think you can find it?” he asked before the silence got too awkward. Gavin nodded, setting his mug down on the coffee table.

“I can just feel it.” he said. Geoff shrugged, but he didn’t look convinced.

“Look, something isn’t right about this. I dunno if it’s different where you’re from, but we don’t just go marching on because of our instincts here.” He fiddled with his fork.

“But I guess I’ll have to trust you. Just… be careful, okay Gav? I don’t want you to fall into a trap or anything.” he said, staring at his plate. Gavin smiled.

Sometimes he forgot that the people he met were from completely different dimensions. He’d seen a lot of strange ones, but most of the time it was mostly similar, with tiny differences.

Most versions of his friends always felt like the same people he’d come to care about, even if they weren’t. So a lot of times he forgot that he wasn’t technically friends with a lot of the people he met. He had a feeling Geoff met a lot of alternate versions as him as well and felt the same.

“I’ll try.” he said. Geoff nodded, a small smile on his face. He heard someone snort from behind the couch. It was Michael, now awake and with a serious bedhead that Gavin couldn’t resist laughing at.

“Geoff, this is Gavin we’re talking about. I doubt he’ll be that careful.” Gavin was about to protest before he continued. “Don’t worry though, I’ll try my best to make sure he doesn’t fuck himself over or anything.” he said, wrapping his arms around Gavin’s neck from behind and smiling. Geoff chuckled.

“Goddamn you guys are gay as dicks.” Gavin heard him mutter. He laughed.

“Well you better make sure he doesn’t Michael.” Geoff said, his smile growing bigger.

“Speaking of fucking, now that you’ve got your memories back could you please save that after we’ve saved the world?” Ray, who had appeared next to Michael, said. Michael laughed, and placed a quick kiss on Gavin’s head.

“But what if we don’t make it?” he joked. “I’d like to fuck him again before we die.” Geoff snorted. Ray thought for a moment.

“Okay fine, just don’t do it while I’m in the room.” Ray retorted. They all laughed.

“Okay, I’ll just go get my stuff and we can leave.” Michael said, removing his arms from around Gavin’s neck.

Ten minutes later they were ready to go. Geoff and Jack insisted that they bring some more supplies with them, since they hadn’t been that stocked in the first place. They said their goodbyes and turned to Gavin.

He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, to make sure he got them in the right dimension. After he was sure he’d concentrated enough, he closed his eyes and opened a portal.

They arrived back at the maze they’d found Lindsay and Dan in. Gavin wasn’t sure if he was surprised or disappointed. He probably should’ve seen this coming honestly.

“Wait, here again?” Michael asked.

“Yeah I’m pretty sure it’s here.” Gavin said, his face looking a bit grim. “I think Lindsay was just here to distract us.”  Ray looked down the three dark corridors again.

“So do we split up or...?” he asked. Gavin shuddered a bit at the thought of going through the maze alone. He shook his head.

“That didn’t work well last time, probably won’t this time.” he reasoned.

“Okay, where do we go then?” Michael asked. Gavin shrugged.

“Well obviously we don’t go to the one on the right, since it just leads to a room.” Gavin said, gesturing to the corridor he’d gone in the last time.

“I never go to the end of mine, found Dan first. Do we go there then?” Ray asked.

“Well we could always go back so yeah I guess.” Gavin said. Together they went through the leftmost corridor. It didn’t seem any different from the one Gavin passed through, though it had a few more twists and turns.

Finally they reached the end of the corridor, and met a huge wooden door. Gavin hesitated, then pushed it open.

He had assumed that the doorway lead to the outside, and it took a second for him to realize that he was actually right.

The outside was not any brighter than the inside, and Gavin felt like it wasn’t because of the time of day. They were in a middle of a forest, or what used to be a forest.

The trees were drooping and had turned grey, the leaves almost purple. It wasn’t so much as dead as… sick. The sky was almost the same shade of grey as the grass, and the few clouds in the sky had a creepy glow to them.

Gavin shivered, not because it was cold but because it was completely obvious that whoever created the dimension monsters had taken this one and made it their home. He could see the silhouettes of tall buildings in the distance.

Even for a forest it was quiet. There were no sounds of animals or running water or anything like that. It felt wrong.

“Yeah, it’s here.” he said, staring at a tree that he swore had moved a bit. He nervously gripped his weapon. Something was there.

And then Lindsay stepped out from behind the tree. Gavin glanced at his friends, who looked a bit surprised, but honestly not much.

“Well well well,” Lindsay said. She grinned, but it wasn’t the same grin the Lindsay they knew had. Her grin was sinister and made it seem like she wanted to gut someone. “It seems like you’ve found me!” she held up her arms in a “you’ve got me” manner.

Michael and Ray had stepped up next to him, and out of the corner of his eye Gavin saw that Michael’s eyes were narrowed.

“She seems.. off.” he muttered. It didn’t seem like anyone but Gavin had heard. Gavin nodded.

“Look, she doesn’t have her ring.” Gavin replied. Michael nodded, and approached Lindsay, his sword held out in front of him.

“Stop fucking with us dude, we know you’re not her.” he practically growled. Lindsay raised an eyebrow.

“Oh?” she said. Michael rolled his eyes, and pointed the tip of his sword at her.

“Don’t you fucking ‘oh’ me.” he said. Lindsay chuckled. “Alright then.” she mumbled. Her form morphed and turned black for a second, then suddenly Lindsay was Dan.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” he said, smiling apologetically. Gavin was shocked for a second, then his suspicion seeped in. He studied Dan, trying to notice if anything was off like with Lindsay. He was about to speak up when Dan dodges an arrow aimed at his head.

“Now now Ray, there’s no need to hit your friends!” he said, feigning insult. Ray notched another arrow and aimed.

“Look asshole, you’re definitely not our friend, so stop pretending to be any of them, it’s getting fucking annoying.” he said. Dan laughed.

Dan—or whoever he was—morphed into a few of their other friends, Gus, Monty,Joel, and others, until he noticed that the lads were just glaring at him. He grinned, currently looking exactly like Burnie.

“Alright then, since you all seem so serious.” he said, his grin looking a bit like a scowl. He thrusted his hand out towards them, and then promptly exploded, knocking them all backwards.

“Oh fuck!” Michael exclaimed. Where Burnie was, a dark, humanlike figure stood. It was probably around 6 feet tall, and like the monster Gavin had encountered before, the only distinguishable features was its grin.

“They call be Tenebris.” it said, its form becoming a bit more solid and a bit less dark. “Welcome to my dimension.” Before he could continue saying anything else, Gavin attacked him. Tenebris didn’t seem even a bit phased, instead a huge hammer seemed to have formed in his hand, it was made out of the same sort of smoke he was.

Gavin fought with all his might, fueled by mostly anger. This guy had messed with, impersonated, and threatened him and his friends, and was going to destroy the universe. He was goddamn done with this guy.

He and Michael attacked close range while Ray stayed a bit behind, shooting arrows. Tenebris noticed this, and pushed the two away to get closer, probably thinking that Ray wouldn’t be as good melee.

He was mistaken. Each time he attacked, Ray attempted to get behind him and stab him with his arrows and set them on fire. But it didn’t work for long, Tenebris realized what Ray was doing quite quickly and prevented him from getting too close but too far, and when Ray had managed to shoot him at a closer distance he smacked onto the ground a few feet away.

“Ray!” Ray heard a voice call out to him as he stood up. He turned around and saw Dan and Lindsay behind one of the trees, both tied up. Rays eyes widened. Dan was struggling, but Lindsay seemed to be passed out.

“Whoa what happened here?” he asked, kneeling next to them.

“Tenebris tied us up.” Dan said. “Lindsay still won’t believe me and he found me through her. I dunno why he tied her up though.” Lindsay stirred. Dan inched away from her a bit, probably a bit scared that she would react badly to being tied up.

She opened her eyes and immediately kicked Ray on the stomach.

“Jesus!” he exclaimed. “What was that for?!” Lindsay looked panicked, like something was out to kill her.

“Don’t come close.” she threatened. “Or I’ll hurt you.” she didn’t seem to have any weapons, but Ray still backed away.

“Lindsay calm down, he’s not going to hurt you.” Dan said. Lindsay turned to glare at him.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m certainly not going to trust either of you.” she said.

“We’re not trying to hurt you or anything, it’s that fucking crazy bitch Tenebris who tied you up.” Ray said, holding his hands out in front of him.

“Really? Dan gave me this,” she pointed at the bruise on her head “and I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be dead.” she said.

“I’m from a different dimension.” Ray argued.

“Exactly why I don’t trust you. Besides, you were with him last time.” she snarled.

“What, Gavin? Why do you hate him so much?”

“They told me he killed them all.” she mumbled, staring at the ground. “That it was his fault they all died.”

“They?” Dan asked. She looked up. From the look on her face, she was more sad than angry.

“When I came back from my trip and saw everyone gone, I heard a voice.” she said. “It explained to me what happened and gave me a gem, which turned into my ring.”

“The voice led me to the maze, and I stayed there. Eventually I could hear more than one voice, and they all told me it was all Gavin’s fault. They told me to kill him.” she looked back at the ground.

“And you believed them?!” Ray said. Lindsay shrugged.

“It made sense at the time. I’m starting to realize that that was dumb, but I was mad and I had lost my friends and somehow revenge seemed like the best idea.”  Ray placed his hand on her arm. She didn’t jerk away, but she eyed it nervously.

“We’re not going to lie to you Lindsay. Those voices? They were probably that Tenebris asshole. He was the one who tied you up in the first place.” Dan said. Lindsay sighed and was silent for a moment.

“Okay.” She said. Ray used an arrow to cut the rope, and they both stood up, stretching.

“Okay, let’s go kick some arse, yeah?”

They ran back to Michael and Gavin, but they weren’t fighting Tenebris anymore. They had both been knocked to the ground, and Tenebris was standing in front of a portal. He entered the portal with a flash.

They helped the two up. Neither of them were injured, apparently he had just shoved them to the ground.

“What do we do now?” Michael asked. Gavin grinned and pointed at the portal, that apparently Tenebris hadn’t closed.

“We follow him.”

The second they had gone through the portal, everything went black, the same second all the alarms rang in Gavin’s head


	6. Chapter 6

“What the fuck.” Michael said as he sat up, rubbing his head. “I feel like I’ve just been kicked in the fucking brain.” Ray sat up next to him. Lindsay was still lying down, but she was awake. Dan was standing up and looking around. Gavin was still asleep.

“Where are we?” Dan asked, They were in a forest almost identical to the one they had previously been in, but it looked a bit more like a forest.

“I think we’re—”

“BOLLOCKS!” Gavin yelled, sitting up and interrupting Ray. Everyone turned to look at him.

“What’s wrong?” Michael asked. Gavin stood up and looked around frantically.

“We’re in huge trouble.” he said, hugging his arms.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Michael said, standing up as well. Gavin turns to him and stares straight into his eyes.

“We’ve been in the same universe since we went into the maze the first time, and we only have one day left to stop Tenebris.” he said.

“I don’t know how to explain this, but I feel a bit more rested than usual. Over the last few days my uh.. instincts were kind of off. I could just barely tell what was the actual source dimension and what wasn’t.” Gavin explained.  “Except that was all bollocks and we’ve been in the source dimension the entire time!”

Everyone stared at him.

“I think he’s been manipulating my portals. I mean, isn’t it weird that we’ve found everyone else at Achievement Hunter exactly once?” he continued, turning to face the others..

“Or the fact that the portal he made didn’t close behind him, but closed after we went in?” Dan chimed in.

“Yeah, exactly!” Gavin said, nodding at him. “A bunch of fishy things have been happening this entire time, ever since I got erased.”

“I just have to er… find him again.” Gavin said, his voice faltering. Michael took his hand and squeezed in an attempt to reassure him.

“Are we still in the same universe?” he asked. Gavin shrugged.

“We kind of are, but not at the same time.” he said. Michael looked at him like he was crazy. “I dunno it’s like we’re on an island in the middle of the ocean.”

“Can you try and open up a portal to Tenefuckface then? I mean apparently we’ve been traveling through portals to different parts of a dimension, why not do it again?” Michael said, letting go of Gavin’s hand. Gavin attempted to make a portal, but for a second nothing happened.

“Come on come on!” he said, but still nothing. He sighed.

“I doubt we’ll get out this easily.” Dan said. None of them had noticed that Lindsay had appeared next to Gavin. She made a grab for his scythe.

“Oi!” he said, not letting her take it. She rolled her eyes.

“Let me just look at it.” she said. Reluctantly, Gavin gave her his weapon. She examined it, from the blade to the handle. Then she concentrated a ball of dark energy  in her hand, making everyone step back.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Gavin exclaimed, reaching to take his scythe from her, but Dan stopped him. Wait, he mouthed.

She returned to Gavin his scythe, and then held out her hand, which held the dark magic.

“I can help you find him.” she said. “He sort of gave me some of his magic, I can help you track him.” Gavin stared at her hand like it was on fire.

“You tried to kill me three days ago, why would I…” he began, before realizing: he had no choice.

It didn’t matter whether Lindsay was going to attack him, because they only had a hours before the world ended. They need to find Tenebris as soon as possible. He took her hand.

A weird cold feeling shot up Gavin’s hand to his head, making him want to let go immediately, but Lindsay’s grip was tight. She had closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. The cold feeling spread throughout his head, making him panic a bit more.

Then the coldness dulled a bit, becoming slightly warmer. He nervously glanced at Lindsay, who was still concentrating. She nodded as if to signal that she was ready.

With his free hand, he gripped his scythe and slashed at the air. For a second nothing happened, then a portal appeared, with dark energy swirling around it. Gavin let go of Lindsay’s hand.

“Why are you helping us anyway?” he asked, before realizing that was probably a bit rude. Lindsay shrugged.

“I mean, even after not seeing them for so long it’s easy to forget you’re not the same people I knew. I just keep wanting to help.” She smiled. “Besides, I don’t want to die.” He laughed, then looked at Dan, Michael, and Ray, who had all taken out their weapons.

“You lads all ready?” he asked. Dan nodded, Michael took his free hand again, and Ray gave him a thumbs up. He took a deep breath, and went inside the portal.

He honestly wasn’t sure what to expect what he would see on the other side, maybe something dark and sinister like the forest, but he definitely didn’t expect what he saw.

He found himself back at the Roosterteeth office, in the parking lot. Except y’know, with dead trees and weeds growing in the cracks, and of course dark magic scattered everywhere.Tenebris sat in a little dark magic chair on top of the title on the front, grinning like he had just won everything.

“Welcome back!” he said, gesturing for them to come closer. Michael pointed his sword at him.

“Okay asshole, what the fuck is going on here?!” he said. Tenebris smiled innocently.

“Oh, you mean my little trick?” he said. “It’s simple enough, I manipulated your little portals, making sure you stayed here, so I could keep an eye on you.”

He brought out his hammer, twirling it with his fingers.

“I sent you to different hmm, let’s call them pockets of reality. I manipulated them, and made sure you ended up in the right places. It wasn’t very hard.” he said. “Honestly, I’m surprised you had just figured it out. I thought you’d have noticed aaages ago. Clearly I overestimated you.”

“Wait what?” Gavin looked a bit insulted. Tenebris stopped twirling the hammer and made it grow bigger.

“Puh-lease, haven’t you noticed? First I send you to the in between dimension, then I attack your precious little office, then I make sure you barely get any rest, I’ve been stalling you all this time!” he said. Gavin rolled his eyes.

“Well it’ll all be useless, we’re going to stop you.” Tenebris laughed.

“You sound so determined, it’s hilarious. Honestly. Didn’t you at least find it strange that you met each of your friends exactly once, and not again?”

“Who gives a flying fuck?” Michael said, stepping forward. The others stepped forward as well. “We may not have noticed that, but we can still very much kick your shit in.”

“Whatever makes you sleep at night.” Tenebris muttered. “Speaking of your friends, I took the liberty of rounding them up for you!” he jumped down from the small roof ledge to the ground as the wall disappeared, showing the other Achievement Hunters all tied up with some sort of dark magic.

Geoff, Caleb, Jack, and Ryan, the same ones they had encountered earlier. In Tenebris’ hand were gems, probably their weapons, back in gem form.

Gavin observed them, one by one, making sure they were all okay. Geoff rolled his eyes and gave him a look that said, Can you believe this guy? Caleb winked and gave him an encouraging smile, Jack gave him a small nod, and Ryan gestured with his head for Gavin to avert his attention back to Tenebris. He promised himself that he’d free them as soon as he could.

Gavin was a bit distressed to see his friends tied up, but Lindsay looked livid. She had stepped in front of them all, gripping the handles of her daggers, her knuckles white. She looked back and forth between Tenebris and her friends.

“Also I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’ve been doing some… cleaning up.” Tenebris said. “We’ve been killing you Constants for almost a year.” Gavin’s eyes widened.

“I mean, if I keep killing you, eventually none of you will be left!” Tenebris said, laughing.

“I doubt it. There’s going to be one version of me that’ll survive and kill you. You’re a moron!” Gavin said. Tenebris concentrated a ball of dark energy in his hand like Lindsay had.

“I’ve been defying the laws of the universe for years, you think you can stop me?” he boasted.

Gavin stepped back. He glanced at his friends, both the ones next to him and the ones tied up. Then Michael attacked, yelling. Tenebris grinned, as if having someone run at him with a sword was the best thing to have happened. The hammer in his hands grew until it was almost as tall as Michael, and he slammed in on the ground, making Michael fall backwards.

He stood up, muttering profanities under his breath, and hell broke loose. Monsters appeared from everywhere, in different shapes. Gavin glanced at his tied up friends worriedly, and then noticed Caleb was trying to get his attention. Gavin raised an eyebrow.

Distract him Caleb mouthed, grinning. Gavin nodded and charged Tenebris. Tenebris tried to swat him with his hammer, but Gavin cut off the handle. It dissolved, but regrew just as quickly. Gavin dodged another attack, and slashed Tenebris’ arm off, making the gems fall to the ground.

Tenebris didn’t notice the gems slowly floating back to Caleb. Gavin smiled, and slashed Tenebris in the face. Tenebris growled, and hit Gavin on the side, knocking him away.

As he staggered back to his feet, he saw Lindsay dodging an eagle that was swooping down to slash her with its talons. Gavin glanced at the office, and ran to help her.

“Go help untie everyone,” Gavin muttered to Lindsay, blocking the eagle’s talons from reducing the size of his nose in half. “Go!”

Lindsay nodded, and ran off to help. Gavin looked behind him for a second, and ended up getting scratched in the face.

“Oi you knobhead, that hurt!” Gavin said indignantly to the eagle, slashing it near its middle. Immediately the eagle dissolved. Wait a second, Gavin thought. He had an idea.

He turned around to help his friends fend off the monsters. The others had been untied somehow, and were now fighting as well. Gavin grinned. They’d kill Tenebris in no time.

But the monsters kept coming. No matter how many they killed more took their place.

“This isn’t fucking working!” Michael shouted, dodging an attack from a gorilla. “We need to kill Tenebris!” Gavin looked around.

He saw him standing in the middle of the battle, watching it all. Gavin nudged Michael and gestured to Tenebris. Michael’s face hardened. He turned his attention from the monster and approached Tenebris, dodging the other monsters and occasionally injuring once. He had scratches all over his face and arms, but he didn’t seem to notice.

Gavin turned to help him, but he got tackled to the ground by a monster. He flailed for a few seconds before it dissolved. He looked around to see Ryan grinning from a tree. He nodded at him.

Gavin tried to get to Michael, but he kept getting distracted by monsters.

“Fight you fucking coward!” Michael yelled. “You think you’re hot shit, you’re just sitting there like an asshole!” Tenebris raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t need to fight.” he said cooly. “I just need wait for sunset, and I don’t have to wait very long.” He spread out his arms. “I am exercising patience.”

A smile tugged at Michael’s lips. He’s a fucking arrogant and lazy shit, this’ll be eeaasy. He thought.

He charged at Tenebris again. Michael sliced off his head, thinking it would do more damage. But instead it dissolved, and regrew in two seconds flat.

He ducked, narrowly avoiding Tenebris from knocking his head off. He tried to get low enough to cut off his leg, but ended up getting kicked in the face. Tenebris was too fast. He regrew way faster and moved way faster than regular monsters.  Michael attempted to freeze his feet to the ground, but Tenebris just shifted his form to get out.

Keep going, Michael told himself. He’ll run out of energy and stop reforming soon.

He tried to get closer, but Michael could only get close enough to slice part of his arms off. He tried to get behind Tenebris, but he turned too fast. He glanced around, hoping to see Ryan or Ray or Caleb or someone who could give him some back up, but he didn’t see anything except monsters.

He panicked for a second, and then saw a flaming arrow shoot up. Michael sighed in relief, and the moment he took to look at the arrow almost killed him. Tenebris—who was now holding an axe—swiped at his head. At that moment someone had appeared in front of him and had deflected the attack.

Jack stood in front of him, his sword braced against Tenebris’ axe. Michael stepped back, then quickly sliced off the arm Tenebris held his axe in. His arm and the axe disappeared. Michael glanced at Jack, who grinned at him.

Fighting Tenebris was a bit easier with Jack. While Michael tried to cut him up the best he could, Jack was extremely quick, though not as quick as Tenebris. He’d teleport behind Tenebris, giving him a quick jab or two.

Since it was a small distance the teleporting didn’t use that much of Jack’s energy, but eventually he slowed down. He had used up too much at once.

They held him off for a few minutes before Michael realized that he was still stalling them, like he had been the entire time. He glanced at the sky. It was getting dark.

Just then, a force slammed onto his arm, the same one that had been injured when they met Geoff and Jack—he barely even remembered that he was injured—and pain shot up his arm, sending him to the ground.

“Michael!” he heard Gavin shout. He didn’t even know when Gavin had got there.

“Are you okay?” he asked. Michael tried to stand up, and winced. He shook his head. Gavin dragged him away from Tenebris and the monsters, and leaned Michael against a tree.

Gavin examined Michael’s arm. The wound hadn’t reopened, but it definitely bruised.

It hurt. And knowing Michael, Gavin definitely knew that it did.

“Hooooly,” Michael said, trying to move his arm. “That is fucking— ow ow ow ow ow ow goddammit!” Gavin glanced nervously behind him. The fight was still going on.

From what Michael could see, one of Tenebris’ dimensional monsters had come up behind him and started attacking him. It took him a minute to realize that the monster was Lindsay. She had morphed into one of the monsters, hoping Tenebris didn’t notice.

But as soon as he felt something attack him from behind, he turned and swatted it away with his hammer. Lindsay fell to the ground and turned back into herself.

“I should’ve killed you when I could!” Tenebris growled, looming over her. He slammed his hammer onto what should’ve been her chest, but he only met the ground. She had slipped behind him, stabbing him on the back a few times.

“Stay put, ok?” Gavin said. Michael shook his head, frowning.

“I’m fine!” Michael protested.

“You were complaining that it hurt two minutes ago!” Gavin argued. He placed his hand on Michael’s chest. “Just stay here and try not to get hurt.” Michael sighed, then nodded. The moment Gavin was lost in the sea of monsters, Michael stood up shakily.

He heard Tenebris laugh. The sun was going to set soon. Michael didn’t even need to look at the sky, he could see it everywhere.

There seemed to be more monsters than ever, the world was quickly fading and he could see other places merge into the forest, he could hear voices he didn’t recognize screaming in the background. The world looked like everything had turned semi transparent and you could see a billion places at once. It took him a few minutes to make it back into the fray, disoriented.

“Three minutes!” he heard Tenebris shout gleefully.

Michael saw the office, or what was left of it. Most of the letters had fallen off or weren’t visible, so it just said R O TE   ETH.

That made him snap. The office was in ruins, the world was ending, and Michael was fucking done.

Ignoring the throbbing in his arm, Michael ran towards Tenebris one last time. He yelled, though he wasn’t sure if he really said anything or if he just plain yelled.

He sliced at monsters as they passed, some of them disintegrating, some not. As he approached, Gavin turned and saw Michael. His eyes widened.

“Michael no!” but Michael just ran past him, barrelling into Tenebris, actually catching him by surprise. Tenebris dissolved under him and reappeared behind him, and Michael sliced blindly behind him, hopefully hitting Tenebris.

He was only half aware of what he was doing, dodging and attacking and dodging and attacking and dodging and attacking, he didn’t stop. He was powered by pure rage. He didn’t even notice that Gavin was shouting his name.

He hacked at Tenebris, not even showing signs of stopping, but something was wrong. Tenebris took all the hits, barely showing effort to hit Michael. He moved quickly, but carelessly, as if he didn’t care how much damage he took. He didn’t even have a weapon out. Michael didn’t notice, but Michael did.

Two minutes.

Gavin stood a few meters away, stunned. He didn’t know what to do. Jack and Lindsay had disappeared somewhere, holding off the monsters to make sure none got to them or interfered.

“Gavin!” Jack snapped him out of his daze. He turned to Jack, who was fighting what looked like a kangaroo. He shook his head, trying to figure out what to do. If he interfered, Michael might snap out of it and get hurt.

If he didn’t, they’d all die.

He took a deep breath and braced himself, then whipped around to face Michael and Tenebris. “Michael!” he yelled again, coming closer. Michael turned to face him. At that moment Tenebris shoved him to the ground, his axe now in hand. He held it in front of Michael’s face and had one foot on his chest.

One minute.

“Prepare to die!” he said. Michael struggled under his foot, with no luck. He turned his head to see Gavin running towards him. Tenebris raised his axe over his head.

“OI YOU PRICK!” Gavin shouted, getting Tenebris’ attention for a few seconds. Gavin picked up one of Caleb’s stars from the ground, throwing it at his face.

He had terrible aim and it caught Tenebris’ shoulder instead, but it was enough to distract him. Michael pushed Tenebris’ leg off of his chest, then rolled behind him. He quickly stood up, and attacked Tenebris again, cutting off his arm.

Tenebris whirled around, his axe turning back into a hammer, and swung at Michael. He jumped back in time to not get hit, but his hand, which was still outstretched, got badly hit.

“Ow fuck fuck fuck fuck,” he muttered under his breath, bending forward to clutch his hand. Tenebris turned to Gavin as Michael shakily straightened himself, his hand throbbing.

Thirty seconds.

Tenebris kicked Gavin’s feet, making him topple to the ground. “Michael!” Gavin yelled again. He nudged his head towards Tenebris, and sliced the air horizontally with his hand. Thank god, Michael understood.

He wasn’t sure how he knew what to do, but he did. Tenebris raised his hammer above his head as he had done a while ago with his axe, and Michael steadied himself. He glanced to his right, and saw Ryan nearby. He waved his arm and quickly mouthed something to him. Ryan nodded.

Ten seconds.

Time seemed to slow down, and from the shocked look on Tenebris’ face, it might actually have.

Michael waited for the right moment, and then sliced Tenebris in half, cleanly in the middle. At the same time, Ryan sent electricity through the cut, making Tenebris freeze for a second. For a second everything seemed to freeze, as a few arrows pierced Tenebris as well.

And then he exploded.

Michael was blinded for a second. He could only see white, and hear a deafening BOOM.

He was pushed backwards, tumbling once, twice, thrice, finally landing on his back. And then it was quiet.

He groaned, putting a hand over his face, trying to block the bright light. His whole body ached. He felt someone poke him on the shoulder, so he turned to the right, where the hand supposedly came from, and opened his eyes.

Lying next to him, face scratched up and hair way messier than usual, his hand resting in between them, was Gavin. He was smiling so hugely it was like he hadn’t been right in front of an explosion a few second before.

“Hi,” Gavin said. “You did amazing.” Michael smiled back at him. He placed his hand on Gavin’s and squeezed.

That was when Michael noticed that everything had been different. He tried to get up but failed, falling back again. Gavin chuckled.

Everything was alive again. The grass was green and actually looked like normal grass, the trees were alive, the office was a bit beat up but not actually destroyed. The world was solid and alive again. Michael sighed in relief and turned back to Gavin, who hadn’t moved.

“Just to be clear, we didn’t die right?” Gavin laughed.

“Well if we did, heaven looks really familiar.” he replied. Michael grinned.

“Are you sure we’re in heaven though? I mean you’re here so I think it’d be hell.” Gavin pouted, making Michael laugh. He scooted closer, making their foreheads touch. He gripped Gavin’s hand and sighed in relief.

“We’re alive.” he said. He was smiling so hugely his cheeks hurt.

“I am and you are and holy shit I was so terrified but right now I am so fucking glad you’re alive.” he rambled, before kissing Gavin. Gavin giggled into the kiss.

A shadow loomed over them, making them both look up.

“So are you guys gonna get up or are you gonna lie there and make out all day?” Ray joked. He looked just as beat up as the both of them, but he was grinning. Michael laughed.

“Well I would, but I’m can barely fucking move.” he replied. Ray snickered and offered to help them both up.

With Ray’s help they stood up and went to the others. Everyone seemed fine, although they were all scratched up and bruised. Dan had a nasty cut on his leg, but he would be fine.

Apparently the entire time he’d been hiding in the trees, making time speed up or slow down to help the others in battle. His weapon had gotten lost, so that was all he could do. Gavin pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Dan.

“Here,” he said. It was a gem.

“Oh wow, cheers man!” Dan said as it transformed into a crossbow. He grinned.

They planned on rebuilding the office and decided to do it right away, since Michael, Ray, and Gavin were there to help. They did it less for them to use, and more for sentimental reasons. The ones who lived in the universe were actually going to go out and find if there were still people around, seeing as Tenebris had wrecked havoc there. They hoped that it was only in one city and not everywhere else that had been completely destroyed or reduced to darkness.

They were going to help out whoever they did find, and maybe eventually they could go back to how things used to be.

“Hey Gav?” Geoff said as they reassembled the Roosterteeth sign.

“Yeah?” Gavin turned to look at him. Geoff punched him lightly on the arm.

“I fucking told you it was a trap!” he said, attempting to look mad. Gavin laughed.

“Well I saved your sorry arse anyway, you should be thanking me!” he retorted. Geoff laughed as well.

“Yeah thanks for that man, now we might be able to all live normally again.” his expression turned a bit serious.

“I was actually going to ask for a favor…” he said.

“What d’you need?” Gavin asked.

“Well, could you take me home? Like, where you met us in the first place? I want to make sure that Griffon and Millie are okay.” he said, looking concerned. Gavin smiled.

“Of course, I can take you to them!” Gavin smiled and pulled out his scythe, but apparently it wasn’t necessary.

“Hey Geoff!” Jack, who had been scouting the area called. “Get over here!”

Jack was walking towards them, with Griffon.

“Oh I’m so glad you’re okay!” Geoff said, running over to pull her into a hug. She smiled.

“I can say the exact same thing.” They pulled apart and she turned to Gavin.

“Congrats on saving the world.” she said.

“How’d you know it was me?” Griffon rolled her eyes and laughed.

“Who else would it be?”

“Hey! I helped!” Michael interjected, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. “Fuck that, I was the one who killed him!” His fingers interlocked with Gavin’s, and he nudged him jokingly.

“This asshole lay down while I saved the world like the lazy fuck he is.” he joked. Gavin pretended to look insulted, but failed when he broke into a fit of giggles.

Michael felt peaceful for the first time this week, helping out rebuild the office, cracking jokes, it was all so calm and peaceful that it almost felt alien to him.

Rebuilding the office was actually quick work, with Jack being able to get to the hard to reach places, Caleb being able to carry something with his hands and with his mind at the same time, Ryan getting the power back on in a matter of minutes, Geoff and Gavin mending the broken objects, Ray lighting up the area with magic fire, Michael doing some of the blunt work, and Lindsay and Dan catching whatever was dropped before it broke, they finished in just three hours.

Standing at the front, facing the office, Michael couldn’t help but smile. It was finally over.

He’d barely left Gavin’s side the entire time, even though he didn’t do it on purpose. He just always ended up next to him or nearby, cracking a joke or making fun of him. At one point Gavin joked that Michael was stalking him, and Michael joked that maybe Gavin was the one following him.

They all collapsed in the Geoff’s house afterwards, which was actually quite nearby. They were all tired from everything that had happened that day, and couldn’t wait to sleep, thought it was a bit cramped, seeing as it wasn’t exactly fit to house eight extra people.

Ryan had called dibs on the couch, so Jack, Caleb, Dan, and Lindsay slept on the floor in the living room. The three lads slept in the same room they had last time, with Ray on the bed again.

Michael and Gavin didn’t go to bed for hours, despite being tired. They talked and joked and kept Ray up, who either chimed in time to time or complained about them being loud. Although really, he didn’t mind much.

“Goddamn, I can’t believe it’s only been a few days since I got you out of that weird place thing, it feels like it’s been forever.” Michael said, fiddling with Gavin’s left hand. They were both sitting down, leaning on the wall, having given up sleep an hour ago. Gavin’s head was leaning on Michael’s shoulder. He smiled.

“Yeah, time is weird.” he said. “I can’t wait to go home.”

Michael tugged on Gavin’s fingers. “It’s gonna be weird to see everyone else again, because they don’t know what happened and stuff. They’re not gonna be the ones we met here”

“Well we’re probably going to have to tell them anyway since they know, especially because of that weird stuff that happened when we almost died, and they’re still the same people we used to know.” Michael snorted.

“When we almost died? You’re gonna have to be more specific Gav.”

“When it was sunset, and the weird stuff? Where it was like, you were in one place but not at the same time?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Michael asked. Gavin looked up at him and saw he was laughing.

“I’m just fucking with you.” he said in between laughs. Gavin nudged him, but he was smiling too.

“Why are you so mean to me?” Gavin asked jokingly. Michael slowly stopped laughing, although he was still grinning.

“Because I love you asshole.” he muttered, making Gavin smile so big Michael almost wanted to punch him in the face, but he didn’t.

“Aaaw how sweet!” Gavin cooed, curling into Michael’s side. He turned to his left and hugged Michael’s arm, holding his hand. Michael nudged him.

“You’re supposed to say I love you back bitch!” Gavin laughed, then closed his eyes.

“Love you” he said. Michael grinned and kissed his forehead.

“‘msleepy.” Gavinmumbled.

“Then go to sleep?” Michael suggested, ruffling Gavin’s hair.

“I am.” he said. Michael rolled his eyes.

“Well lie down, I can’t sleep like this dipshit.” Michael said, trying to get Gavin’s head off of his shoulder. Gavin lazily shook his head and mumbled “No.”

Ray found them asleep like that the next morning.


	7. Chapter 7

Geoff cooked them all a wonderful breakfast of sausages and eggs, which actually tasted very good. Ryan had been the first one up, grumbling about his back aching, then Dan, then Ray, who complained that he barely got any sleep because Michael and Gavin kept him up with their banging, then Jack, then Lindsay, then Caleb.

They were all almost finished eating when Michael and Gavin had gotten up, still fairly sleepy. Geoff smiled and handed them their plates, and they all ate together.

“Man, it’s been a quite a few days hasn’t it?” Ray said as he finished his food. Michael agreed.

“We fucking saved the universe, no big deal.” He said, shrugging.

“Actually, we saved several universes, not just one.” Gavin corrected. They laughed.

“You know I probably wouldn’t want to admit this, but I think I’m gonna miss you guys when you leave.” Geoff said. Lindsay looked up, then stared at her plate.

“I miss everyone.” she said. Their smiles faded a bit, but she shrugged. “Oh well, things happen.” Caleb placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, we aren’t dead, even if Tenebris said so. Who knows, maybe everyone’s still alive!” he said encouragingly. A smile tugged on her face.

“Anyways,” Geoff said, cutting into the gloom. “Before you guys leave, I’d like to find out something.”

“What?” Ray said.

Geoff grinned. “Let’s go play some video games, I wanna see if you’re gaming skill is any different.”

They played various video games for two hours, and apparently Ray, Michael, and Gavin were just as good as Geoff thought they were. Geoff was actually a bit better at video games than the Geoff they knew was, but it wasn’t that much.

“Fuck, of all the alternate dimension versions of you guys we had to meet, it had to be the ones actually a bit good at video games?” Ryan asked when he died for the fifth time ingame. Michael laughed.

“That’s debatable really.” he said.

“Michael!” Gavin protested.

“I wasn’t even talking about you!” Michael said, laughing, as Gavin mumbled “Oh.”

After they had their fill of playing and gathered their things together, they finally said goodbye.

“Thanks for you know, not getting us all killed.” Ryan said, patting them both on the back. “Have a safe journey home.”

Dan gave Gavin a hug and Michael a nod, telling them to not get into too much trouble.

Caleb smiled and said that he hoped to see them again eventually, but hopefully not because the world was ending again.

Lindsay thanked them, and apologized for trying to kill Gavin at first. He shook his head and told her that it wasn’t her fault. She gave them both a hug.

Jack had joked that if they dimensional barriers ever collapse again he’s blaming them both, then told them that one day they’ll meet again and he’ll kick their ass in some more video games.

Geoff and Griffon were the last ones to say goodbye, saying they were welcome to come back if they ever needed to. Then they left.

It was a bit disorienting to be back in civilization, after being in the practically uninhabited universe Tenebris had led them to.

Of course, they had actually appeared in the middle of a lets play, giving Jack, Ryan, Caleb, and Geoff a heart attack.

“Ok so— Jesus christ!” Jack said as Gavin had appeared and grabbed the back of his chair to steady himself. They stopped the recording— they could restart it later—and the lads told them about what had happened.

They all sat on their chairs and formed a circle in the middle of the room as Gavin told the story, with Michael and Ray chipping in for the things he forgot or didn’t see.

“Man, it seems like you were really busy.” Caleb said when they finished. Michael laughed. “You could say that.”

Michael looked around the office, taking it all in. They were finally home, and things were finally back to normal. It was about time he had a break.

They left to go tell Burnie and the others were back, and got welcomed back by a few people they passed by. Michael grabbed Gavin’s hand and smiled. Gavin leaned on his shoulder.

“Well, that was a thing.” Gavin said. Michael laughed.

“Yeah, that was indeed a thing.”

“Fucking saved the world bitches!” Michael practically yelled, earning a weird look from a few other people and a laugh from Gavin.

“Well, we saved more than just the wo—” Michael smacked him on the arm, shushing him.

“Ok then, we saved the world.” Gavin said, giggling. “You doughnut.”


End file.
